📜 This Day in History

April 27

• 395Aelia Eudoxia married Byzantine emperor Arcadius without the knowledge or consent of Rufinus, the Praetorian prefect who had intended for his own daughter to wed the emperor.
• 1777American Revolutionary War: British Army regulars defeated Patriot militias in the Battle of Ridgefield, galvanizing resistance in the Connecticut Colony.
• 1904Chris Watson became the first prime minister of Australia from the Australian Labor Party.
• 1961Prime Minister Milton Margai led the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate to independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1993Thirty people died, including players and staff of the Zambia football team and the crew, in a plane crash en route to play a World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
• 2012Unknown perpetrators carried out a series of four bombings in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine.

Born on this day

• 1759Mary Wollstonecraft, English philosopher, historian, and novelist (died 1797)
• 1820Herbert Spencer, English biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and philosopher (died 1903)
• 1822Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States (died 1885)
• 1967Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands